The Impact of Inclusive Employers

I’m Marc, a Junior Test Analyst and Co-Lead of the Neurodiversity, Disability, and Long-Term Health Condition Colleague Resource Group at Ageas. I have ADHD which was only diagnosed in the last 18 months.

Since I am 41 now, I think we can safely put that into the “Late Diagnosed” category. I have worked in the insurance industry for almost 10 years, and it has been a true rollercoaster. 

I have known all too well that sense that everyone else seems to have been issued a guidebook to life that I haven’t got. In the world of the 00s and 10s, there was no real conversation about neurodiversity, in fact I only learned the term neurodiversity a few years ago. 

That means I often found myself disengaged, finding the work I was doing frustrating, sometimes because there were obviously better ways to do it, other times because I didn’t understand why we needed to do something, or at least do it in a particular way. 

It wasn’t all bad, there were many times that I was able to get into a good workflow, and I came to realise the major influence on how I experienced work often came down to how I was managed.

A good manager who took the time to adapt their style would see me work hard for them, delivering on their expectations. A manager who had a one-size-fits-all method of management would usually find me to be a problem. 

This experience continued as I started out in insurance. I’d not worked in an office environment much and found comfort in the way that much of the work was structured into definable processes that I could follow. I could rely on the fact that somewhere there was a set of rules I could look at and follow to do my job well. 

Unfortunately, these processes didn’t cover every aspect of working in an office environment, I still found myself struggling with the same old issues at times, and the rollercoaster of going from peaks to troughs remained. 

My frustration would grow when talking about my performance and finding myself unable to put words to the experience I was having, or worse, putting words to it and seeing in my manager a complete lack of understanding. If I spoke about being frustrated or stressed, I would be told I needed to not let things get to me, or that I had to deal with the situation like everyone else was. When I discussed how I found putting headphones on with some loud music helped me focus and find my flow, I would sometimes be reminded that I was part of a team, and that I needed to be mindful of those around me. 

This wasn’t always from those with poor management skills either. Full of their intent to help me through a rough patch, sometimes the best managers would take time to listen carefully to me, process what I had said, and then suggest an adapted plan of action that would fail to address the issue. How could they understand what I was dealing with when even I didn’t understand what I was dealing with at the time. 

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This is going to sound a bit cliché now, but finding a more inclusive employer and getting diagnosed has made a huge difference. Ageas is a company which has been championing a Smart Working approach for some time, giving their staff more flexibility in their roles, allowing them to work from home, and where possible removing defined working hours. 

I had just moved from a position on the phones in Ageas to my current role when I first spoke to my new line manager. I asked them what my start and finish times were. They simply replied “Just be at the meetings you need to be at and do the work you need to do. After that we’re not too concerned.”. I was blown away at the idea that I could work in my own way. 

With my diagnosis came access to support that I’d never had. I completed my titration for ADHD medication in July, and the difference in pre-meds me and now is huge. The meds have turned the noise in my head down from an 11 to a steady 4 or 5, freeing me up to be able to focus where I need to, sleeping better, taking better care of myself, and even getting some semi-regular exercise. 

The effect has rolled over into my work. I don’t just grind through the day, desperately hoping that an errant Teams message doesn’t knock me out of my flow. I have built new working habits, using methods better suited to me to make sure I have my work laid out at the start of the day, working out the priorities and putting myself to work, a level of self-management that everyone needs in the modern workplace, but that I struggled to have for so long. 

Now my experience of insurance is that of a rich, complex industry made up of a huge range of people, looking to deliver great products and support to customers as varied and vibrant as they are. 

Conversations about inclusion are so important right now as society continues to become more polarised, but insurance is universal. The majority of people will make use of some form of insurance during their lives, and that makes it a great place to create a more positive, inclusive culture. I’m so grateful to be in a position to be part of that drive in a company that is dedicated to the cause. 

I have a very clear career plan right now. Stick to insurance and be the example of what you can achieve when you don’t need to be afraid about who you are.